THERE are few places in the world where you can head to the remote wilderness to catch a movie.
But from April 6-8 hundreds of film fans will head to Cradle Mountain to do just that.
The Cradle Mountain Film Fest will screen some of the best adventure films from Tasmania and around the globe on the fringe of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
The annual festival is in its fourth year and is the state’s only dedicated adventure film festival.
There will be a “green carpet” screening of three new Tasmanian feature films on the Friday – The Lorax Project (about climbing and BASE jumping from Frenchmans Cap), Lowest to Highest (five friends with significant disabilities cycling from Lake Eyre to Mount Kosciuszko) and Overland (a new take on walking the Overland Track).
The weekend program includes the Tasmanian exclusive screening of Mountainfilm on Tour. From Telluride, Colorado, this four-day festival showcases some of the best of the world’s adventure films, including John Shocklee: A Fairy Tale, celebrating older adventurers.
There will also be the chance to see the finalists in the One Year in Tasmania Adventure Film competition, in which participants entered a five-minute film they had made in the past year, detailing an adventure in Tasmania.
The signature event of the festival is the Mountain Huts Film Trail on the Sunday.
This free self-guided walking program treats participants to a challenging day of hikes in the higher tracks around Cradle Mountain, to see short films screened completely off-grid in five remote huts.
There will also be filmmakers’ workshops and adventure Q&A sessions in the Forest Yurt Cinema. The festival will take place at locations around Cradle Mountain National Park and village.
Getting there...
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is easily accessible from Hobart and Launceston.
There are two main access points: the northern entrance at Sheffield, about 11⁄2 hours from Launceston and the southern at Derwent Bridge, 21⁄2 hours west of Hobart.
Basic accommodation in cabins, chalets and campgrounds is available at Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair.
For full festival details and more accommodation options, visit cradlemountainfilmfest.com